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The new, 2014 Toyota Highlander SUV offers virtually every driver assistance technology, even adaptive cruise control. Combine that with a new infotainment system and the third-generation Highlander may be the best mainstream midsize SUV you can buy… if you could afford it. Toyota put a backup camera on the entry model, then forced virtually every optional driver assist and safety technology onto the priciest trim line. You’re looking at a fully-optioned SUV at $45,000, more than $50,000 for the Highlander Hybrid.

The rich man, poor man options strategy aside, the Highlander rides and handles well, tows up to 5000 pounds, and comes standard with three rows of seats for up to eight passengers. Even the most humble Highlander with a four-cylinder engine comes standard with USB, Bluetooth, a rear camera, and a small color LCD.

On the road: 8 passengers, 38 cans of soda, back seat PA system

The Highlander is in its element in the kinds of daily and weekend driving that most people do. That means getting from A to B, maneuvering around obstacles, keeping out road and wind noise, keeping four or more passengers comfortable on long trips. Others are sportier, cross deeper streams, climb steeper mountain passes, clear bigger boulders, and tow 7500-pound boats. Those are great, but most drivers don’t do that. This not a slur on Toyota for being hopelessly mainstream. They’ve identified how people really use cars.

Eight passengers can fit in the Highlander, seven in the top line Limited with middle row captain’s chairs. The second row passengers have reasonable legroom but not, at 191 inches long, the third row that is kids-only. If the crew gets thirsty, the massive center console stores 38 soda cans. Pull out the drinks and you can stash a couple iPads, flashlights, or a large purse. It’s huge. There’s a rubbery shelf across the middle of the dash. It’s a great place to store phones and sunglasses and a cutout lets you snake a cable to the USB jack. The Easy Speak feature lets the driver send an amplified message through the rear speakers telling noisy passengers to pipe down.

I drove both the 270 hp V6 all-wheel-drive Highlander and the 280 hp Highlander Hybrid that is equipped similarly to the top-of-the-line XLE. In a morning driving the hybrid, mostly city driving, we got 32 mpg. It’s rated at 27 mpg city, 28 mpg highway, 28 mpg combined. The comparable all-wheel-drive gas Highlander is rated 18-24-20, front-drive is 1 mpg better, the four-cylinder front drive is another 1 mpg better. Toyota sells more hybrids than the other automakers combined, but it’s unclear that the hybrid mpg advantage is worth paying $51,000.

The hybrid accelerated quickly. At times, the shift from electric to gasoline drive was noticeable, at others, not. The gas engine drives the front wheels only. The rear wheels are driven by an electric motor only. This is the coming way to provide all-wheel-drive on hybrids built off a front-drive platform, including the sporty Acura RLX.

The lane departure warning, in Japanese fashion, beeps at you. It’s quiet but it’s still audible throughout the cockpit. Most German and American cars are subtler, vibrating the steering wheel or seat. The adaptive cruise control disengages below 30 mph while others work down to 20 mph and higher-end vehicles have full range, stop-and-go ACC. If you tap a complex control, such as cruise control, the multi-information display briefly displays a pictogram showing which way to press the stalk to speed up or slow down. That’s smart.

The two rows of buttons just above the driver’s left knee, some light up when they’re pressed, some show up as icons in the instrument panel but don’t, annoyingly, also light up the button. Steering wheel buttons are the fairly common five-way rockers (up, down, left, right, middle button to execute), as on older smartphones.

Toyota’s 5,000 pound tow rating is a legit figure. The rest of the industry will finally follow Toyota’s lead to use an industry-wide towing standard, called SAE J2807, so you can directly cross-compare.

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billym67

“Other good choices include the Ford Explorer which matches Toyota on safety tech…” I own a ’13 Ford Explorer Limted and it has a lot of tech, but not the same build quality as Toyota (which I’ve owned in the past). I’ve had the Explorer in for warranty work 3 times in 18 months. Basically, first Ford and last Ford.

Bill Howard

In terms of features set, driver aids, general size, the Explorer is a competitor. Toyota sees Honda Pilot as a major competitor. I think the Hyundai Santa Fe is the closest competitor regardless of what’s cross-shopped. Somebody else cited woeful problems with a 2013 Ford Explorer in our Why Ford Dropped Microsoft article http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/177171-why-microsoft-lost-ford-sync – oh, wait, that was you, Billy. I’ve got a Volvo wagon review pending but I haven’t decided if I’ll mention any Fords as possible contenders. Keep watching; you’ve possibly got a chance for a threepeat.

frederigoxcz305

My Uncle Caleb just got red Ford Focus ST by working off of
a computer. try this B­u­z­z­3­2­.­ℂ­o­m

ronch

That dashboard looks like it’s made for WInamp. :P

Sara Wang

The thing is – when u drive Toyota vehicles, you drive quality. I have
no problem with the way the Highlander is priced. I got mine in a steal
from CarMax, but if I knew how well it would drive and how little I
would need to repair it, I wouldn’t think price about paying a few
thousand more for it.
Also, the insurance is cheap.. I’ve been
driving my Highlander for 5 years now and routinely change my insurance
carriers to keep my rates low (to avoid rate increases). I’m usually
able to get rates around the $25 to $30 a month range (I use
4AutoInsuranceQuote or Insurance Panda to find them). The Highlander is
more than twice as cheap as my brother’s Escalade is to insure. Could
not be happier with it.

Thai Nguyen

This is the best designed crossover I’ve ever purchased. I’ve owned bmw X5, Infiniti fx35, ford explorer, sequoia, and odyssey. Hands down Toyota did a great job with this model

bitkahuna

great review thank you. i still like the looks and more luxurious nature of the grand cherokee (3rd row not critical to me), but concerned about its reliability. toyota vehicles haven’t been compelling to me in a while but this new highlander is a huge step forward.

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